Bay area almost have fires. In the last hour, two fires also sparked in Sonoma County, forcing evacuations there. Lightning suspected as the cause of most of these fires. Now, fire danger not the only concern tonight. Power outages are also possible as the states grid is once again pushed to the max. Pg e is asking people to conserve electricity through 10 00 this evening. We have a lot going on right now and a team of reporters in place on the Power Outages and the wildfires. Lets start with nbc bay areas ian cull live in San Mateo County. Ian. Reporter yeah. Hey, guys. Very active scene up behind us here. You can see the plumes of smoke hundreds of feet in the air. This is what you can see from Silicon Valley throughout the bay area as more than 350 firefighters are onscene up there along that ridge. On officer who th a cal fire tells me that this is very steep, difficult terrain to be fighting a fire. Its also very dry up there because of this heat, and thats also a worry and a difficulty for those firefighters. Were trying to get up closer, learn some more new information. We do understand that there has been one injury. Were trying to find out if that was a firefighter or a person. Like raj was saying earlier, a number of evacuations, once again in the loma mar, Dearborn Park area, pescadero county park area, as well as Butano Community area. Pescadero high school has been set up as an evacuation center. I also spoke with a San Mateo County sheriffs deputy, and he said he is getting together with his other deputies. Theyre getting ready to go up there and help out in those Evacuation Orders. There are some other deputies coming from the west. It is a rural area up here, so theyre trying to gather as quickly as they can, let those people know, get it out on media as well. Then once again as we come back out here live, the large plumes of smoke, white, all the way along the ridge. We were just around the bend there, but we couldnt get cell service, so well get some more video. Well be tweeting out pictures from there as well. If you take a look at this landscape, its green, but it is extremely dry, and unfortunately fueling these fires. Reporting live, ian cull, nbc bay area news. Ian, thank you. So we have so many points of the bay area with fires active. Where ian there is on the peninsula, we have them in the south bay, east bay. Now lets bring in nbc bay areas thom jensen who joins us in naomi countpa county. Tom, we can see youre dangerously close to that smoke behind you there. Reporter a lot of evacuations this afternoon as this fire continues to grow. Now a complex of fires called the lightning complex here in napa county. And hundreds of People Living inside of the fire lines here being asked to evacuation, but many of them instead choosing to stay behind to try to protect their homes and their businesses. Gusting winds pushing flames towards highway 128 late this afternoon, forcing new evacuations as the fires in the lightning complex threaten more homes and businesses. But some people are staying behind despite the threat. Youre staying to protect it . Yeah, im a volunteer fireman too. Reporter darryl lives near the turtle rock bar and cafe in the fires path, but the business is also staying open. He says flames like these were licking at the cafe walls four years ago. He says many of the people who live and work in the area have grown accustomed to facing fires almost every year and rebuilding when they have to. My neighbor just not hgot hi house rebuilt from the last fire that burned it down. Reporter the caretaker at a nearby home says hes staying behind too because the elderly Property Owner wont evacuate. I just dont want to let him by himself. Reporter in the middle of all of it this afternoon, commuters and evacuees getting caught in a web of road closures as emergency teams coordinate protection efforts and try to keep looters out. You cant go that way, that way, or that way. Reporter a fire spokesman warning those who wont leave to remain on alert and be ready to get out fast. Demand for more firefighters, more trucks, and more air support high due to the sheer number of active fires all around the bay. We have resources that are stretched thin across the state. Reporter this area right here near Lake Berryessa, part of an emergency mandatory evacuation, expanded Evacuation Order that cal fire ordered this afternoon. I saw a lot of cars driving out of here, and that area around the turtle rock cafe and bar also in those mandatory evacuation emergency orders this afternoon. But as you heard, some people refusing to stay, and cal fire saying they better be ready to get out quick because this fire is unpredictable right now. Live in napa county, thom jensen, nbc bay area news. We are talking fire, wind, and then air quality. This is impacting so many of us. Our meteorologist rob mayeda is with us. Whats going to happen next, rob, with all of this . Not just the heat. Theres so many other factors happening. Yeah. The weather that really started these fires by estimates, 350 lightningsparked fires in just the last 72 hours. Right now its the heat, dry condition, and the wind which is making for the convergence of some really intense, explosive Fire Development around the bay area. Speaking of the north bay, this is the gamble fire there on the edge of Lake Berryessa. You can see the plumes of smoke erupting upwards during the mid afternoon heating. It almost looks like a thunderstorm developing. On the tops of these, the pyrocumulus clouds develop when the updraft starts to get very strong. The tops condense over to a cloud and sometimes as though columns collapse back down, that could lead to sudden wind shifts at ground level. Look at the conditions in sonoma and napa county. Humidity down to 13 or 17 . Wind gusts to 20 miles per hour. Thats as extreme as wildfire weather can get. You got the triple threat of heat, dry conditions, the winds increasing for the afternoon, on top of moderate to severe drought at ground level. You can see these plumes. Our radar, weve readjusted it to look for these ash plumes as they continue to move generally to the southeast, pretty close to where thom jensen was reporting live from, from those north bay fires. East bay, the winds have shifted now more out of the west. This helped to push some smoke temporarily away from the trivalley, but the Santa Cruz Mountains are really seeing some dense smoke settling down into bolder creek, bonnie doon and even santa cruz now. Again, the temperatures still hot. 100 degree temperatures inland and we have another excessive heat warning tomorrow. When we can expect better air quality and relief from the heat coming up in our forecast in ten minutes. Thanks, rob. Livermore has seen some of the hottest temps in the bay area this week and one neighborhood says not only are they sweltering, theyre doing it without any power. That means no a. C. , no fans. Nbc bay areas Damian Trujillo is in livermore. Damian. Reporter janelle, were here on chateau way in livermore, and right now the power is off again after consecutive days of losing electricity for hours on end. The residents say they just want answers. No matter the temperature, this is what folks in livermores chateau way have been doing early every morning, firing up the airconditioning. Thats because theyve been losing the a. C. And their lights in the afternoon for the past four days. Were all running our airconditioning first thing in the morning when you dont need it to get the house cooled. Then were keeping oall the blinds down. Weve put sheets over all the glass in the house that dont have blinds like on doors and stuff to trap the cold air in long as we possibly can. Reporter the neighbors say they understand there are rolling blackouts. They understand there might be a blown transformer somewhere. But they dont understand why they seem to be the only ones hit by blackouts for four straight days. With no explanation, youre at a loss. Reporter these are the text alerts the neighbors have been receiving, similar to those sent to every pg e customer. Today we got some answers for them. The utility told me the problem is that their equipment is overheating and with the higher demand, crews are working to increase the capacity of the lines. Robert glass, who worked at the Lawrence Livermore lab on energy projects, believe the outages highlight a much bigger issue. We are unprepared for these kinds of conditions. We do not have the infrastructure. We cannot support the population weve got. Reporter when the power goes out, they have to stop working. Today that was at 2 25 p. M. Right now the temperature here in livermore, 101 degrees. Live in livermore, Damian Trujillo, nbc bay area news. You need to cool down as well. Pg e has launched a new tool to help customers see if they will be affected by these outages. Customers can put in their address and then theyll be able to see if they are scheduled for an outage. You can find the online tool on our website, nbcbayarea. Com. Just click on rotating outages on our top stories bar. Well, this is usually a spirited week in american politics, but this time around, a little subdued due to social distancing. But the show does go on. Just moments ago, night two of the dnc kicking off. This is a live look now at the virtual Democratic National convention. The keynote address will begin shortly. All of this is just to excite the base and really to try to sway some people to vote for joe biden. Now, later tonight, former secretary of state colin powell is expected to endorse joe biden. General powell is a republican, as you probably well know. Well also hear from two former president s, bill clinton and jimmy carter. Dr. Jill biden is expected to close the night and talk about her husband. Our nbc political analyst Larry Gerston will join us at 6 30, so about 20 minutes from now, to give us some insight and the allimportant roll call, which will officially put joe biden as the democratic candidate for president. Still to come, a racist rant in San Franciscos dolores park. What the woman was doing before she went off on a rec and parks worker. And running out of power. We investigate where california is getting it from during this Energy Crisis and why it has some concern about the repeat of gouging that we had 20 years ago. And were under a microclimate weather alert with our excessive heat warning continues for one more day. That plus fire danger and air quality issues. Ill have a closer look at all of those when we come right back. This isnt our first flip. And sure, some renovations can require a bit of compromise. But, theres no settling here. At floor and decor, she gets to fulfill her vision while i get instock products at budgetfriendly prices. All in one trip. Plus, we get the installation materials we need to get it done right and right on time. Its a winwin. Now thats shopping like a pro. Explore floor and decor, now open for safe instore shopping and curbside pickup. A San Francisco man who was just trying to do his job at dolores park was verbally attacked by a woman upset about covid19 regulations. The whole incident caught on video. Take a look. Stop trying to steal the property we paid for. Go back to wherever you came from. This is our property. You dont get to take it. Andres pitino confronted the unidentified woman on saturday after she was seen taking down signs and cutting the rope that was keeping people from entering the playground, which is off limits right now because of the pandemic. Pitino is a Public Outreach coordinator with the recreation and Parks Department. The woman launched into a racist rant, telling pitino to go back to where he came from. A park ranger eventually intervened, and the woman was escorted out of the park. In a statement, the recreation and Parks Department called the video painful to watch, adding, quote, hate simply has no home in dolores park or San Francisco. Our parks must be spaces where we are all equal and equally welcome. Well, this is not a new problem. Why do we have issues with our power supply, and why are we experiencing rolling blackouts here in the bay area and in california . The next 30 days could be costly. Weve learned power grid managers lifted the price caps on Energy Supplies to get the power we need. Heres Investigative Reporter jaxon van derbeken. The impact being felt all across the west coast. Reporter on monday, the governor called for californians to conserve while demanding a probe into what triggered the heat waverelated rolling outages over the weekend. He told the California Independent systems operator, which regulates the states power grid, the blackouts were unacceptable. In an attempt to avoid further blackouts, cal iso lifted Energy Price Caps to buy up to 30 days worth of extra power as needed. And that has ratepayer advocates shaking their heads. It makes no sense to have a full 30 days with no price cap. Reporter mark tony is head of the ratepayer Advocacy Group turn. Im very concerned that raising the price caps will mean that wall street traders will make an enormous profit on the backs of california ratepayers, and thats just not right. Reporter former cpuc Commission PresidentLoretta Lynch says the crisis hit at a time when the state is vulnerable to market fluctuations. Thats because a rule that required power suppliers to sell all their electricity and not hoard it to drive up prices lapsed back in 2017. They can sit on the sidelines and wait until the price goes up enough for them to offer their power, and that means the key Consumer Protection that i negotiated back in 2001 is no longer available to california, and that means california is going to pay a whole lot more for the same amount of electricity than we should. Reporter just how much more the state is paying is not yet clear. As the contracts are secret. But months of price gouging back in the blackouts of 2000 cost california an estimated 40 billion. Jaxon van derbeken, nbc bay area news. We have an update on our breaking news. The fires burning across the bay area. Sky ranger over one of the biggest ones burning right now. This is a group of fires in San Mateo County. This is southern San Mateo County near skyline boulevard and pescadero. These fires sparked by lightning believed to be early sunday morning. So far flames have burned over 1,000 acres and mandatory Evacuations Ordered for the Butano State Park area and barranca knolls community, and warnings now upgraded to mandatory Evacuation Orders for the communities of Dearborn Park and loma mar. You can see its generating a lot of smoke. You can see it along the peninsula, the south bay. You can download our free nbc bay area app to get the latest alerts on these fires and the Evacuation Orders. It will be sent straight to your smartphone. And another hot day of crippling heat, excessive heat. Not good for firefighters. Lets get a check of our forecast with rob mayeda. Yeah. Those wildfires creating significant air quality issues downwind. The fire burning up in the santa cruz areas. Well take the radar and weve readjusted the coloring here away from the rainbow colors associated with rainfall, but scanning for ash for you this hour. You can see how that plume is right over boulder creek, bonnie doon, heading into santa cruz. Again, locally unhealthy levels of air pollution and ash moving off to the south and east. Winds have picked up around the north bay. You can see quite clearly there. Those column plumes showing up much better on radar. The ash getting pushed off to the south and east and away from central napa county, moving inland. You see the other fire in Sonoma County pushing some smoke and ash between healdsburg and santa rosa. There you see the east bay. Winding picking up around the diablo range and the trivalley. This is why fire danger is so high. Its the triple threat of those high temperatures, humidity levels in the teens outside, and the increasing daytime wind even though technically its an onshore breeze. You couple that with temperatures above 100 degrees, humidity levels in the teens, and obviously drought, parched conditions especially up towards the north bay, and thats a nasty combination for fire crews. Notice this is another day tomorrow, what will start out with 70s and 80s in the morning, 100 degree temperatures inland with that air quality alert due to smoke pollution in the east bay and south bay. We may see some of that up towards the north bay too. Well have to watch the winds during the afternoon. Short term were going to get a little bit of relief, emphasizing the worlds a little there for thursday and friday. You see San Francisco dropping into the low 70s. Valleys, which have been above 100 degrees, for a brief time thursday, friday, saturday, should be in the low to mid90s. We hope that will give some relief in terms of the power reserves which have been stretched thin and hopefully give fire crews a little bit of a break because up in those inland really not going to see a big drop in temperatures. Numbers are going to rebound again later on this weekend. Lets send it back to you. A lot to digest here. Thanks, rob. Well see you in just a few minutes. Up next at 6 00, forced to move outside because of the coronavirus